Two-storey complex which replaces burnt-down market to open end-2018

Residents in Jurong West can look forward to a new two-storey market, shopping and community complex that will replace the market that burned down last year.

Details of this new $6.2 million building, to be known as Jurong Central Plaza, were revealed yesterday by Jurong GRC MP Ang Wei Neng.

The plaza, to be located at Jurong West Street 41, will be ready at the end of next year and will feature a 420 sq m market with 35 stalls and a 433 sq m coffee shop on the ground floor - roughly the same size as the one that burned down.

The second storey will house an Active Ageing Hub, which will have specialised services for seniors such as day care and physical activity classes

It will also have user-friendly features such as wider aisles between stalls, better ventilation and non-slip tiles.

Mr Ang expressed his hopes that this new plaza will be an "icon" for Jurong West.

He said: "From the ashes of the burnt market, we want to transform the burnt site to a sparkling new two-storey building."

In October last year, Lim Ying Siang, then 41, was charged for setting fire to Styrofoam boxes at the market at Block 493, with the knowledge it would likely destroy it.

The fire in the early hours of Oct 11, 2016, caused stall owners to lose their way of earning income and left residents without a place to do their marketing.

It will take some time but it will be good once they build it here, as going to the temporary market is a bit inconvenient.Mr Wong Yi Sook, a 49-year-old manufacturing supervisor

A temporary market was constructed opposite Block 495 and many of the stall owners from the old market set up shop there, but they told The New Paper that business was not the same.

DROP IN BUSINESS

Madam Norsiah Abdullah, 55, who has been working in her family-run Zul and Nor Meat Store for more than 11 years, said she has seen a drop in business of as much as 30 per cent.

She said: "We are lucky to have this temporary market, but it is far and some of my customers are old, in their 60s or 70s.

"We are holding on for now, because fortunately I still have my regular customers. I cannot wait for the complex to open."

Residents, too, are eager for it to be up and running.

Mr Wong Yi Sook, a 49-year-old manufacturing supervisor, said: "It will take some time but it will be good once they build it here, as going to the temporary market is a bit inconvenient."

At yesterday's event, Mr Ang also announced that the neighbourhood's Blocks 492 to 498 are the first to be approved by the Housing Board for shop owners to get a facelift under HDB's Revitalisation of Shops programme.

Successful applicants will get a new signboard, vertical blind and awning.

Yesterday also marked the completion of rejuvenation works in the Jurong West Street 41 neighbourhood.

Under the Remaking our Heartland Programme, amenities such as bicycle racks and a community pavilion were built.